diskusbooks Chapter 87 The Lost City of Time 7
Chapter 87 The Lost City of Time 7
After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, Nabu's progress in strength became increasingly slow and difficult. Under these circumstances, there was no point in staying here any longer, so the group prepared to return to the city.
A line of women with headscarves riding horses appeared on the road leading to Camille, and the horses neighed and charged straight into the city!
Those around them hurriedly moved aside, not daring to let them see them. The guards also fled to both sides, afraid of bumping into them.
"Who are they?" Cheng Jiu looked at these women with great curiosity. On that day in the city, she had fully felt the oppression that city placed on women!
But these people were completely different; they ran rampant in the city, and no one dared to say anything.
“They are flower pickers.” Nabu said with some embarrassment, “There is a powerful evil cultivator outside the city, we call her Gu Niangzi. She is so powerful that even our family does not dare to confront her directly. These women are her subordinates. Gu Niangzi raises many Gu insects and every once in a while she will come into the city to abduct men to use as Gu beds.”
Because of the arrival of the flower-picking women, the guards dared not continue to search people. They all knew how ruthless the flower-picking women were, and if they offended those women, they would definitely be captured and used as witchcraft beds.
Therefore, Nabu's attempt to disguise herself and enter the city was completely ineffective.
The city was in chaos, with flower pickers arresting people everywhere.
"Father!" Two flower-picking girls grabbed a man and prepared to throw him into the Gu cart.
"Master, waaaaah!"
Behind them were the man's family members.
"Please don't take my father away! My younger brother is still young. How will we live without my father?" The man's daughter pleaded, sobbing, as she knelt at the feet of one of the flower pickers.
"Get out of my way!" The flower picker coldly kicked her away.
"Father! Please, fairy, please let my father go. If you want to arrest someone, arrest me instead!" the woman pleaded, crying.
The man who had been begging for mercy nodded: "Fairy, spare me! Fairy, spare me! If you want to arrest someone, arrest this brat! Arrest him instead!"
The daughter stopped crying and stared blankly at her father. Her mother, behind her, pushed her forcefully, saying, "Yes, let my daughter replace her father! She's young! She's energetic and definitely better than her father!"
The daughter felt immense sorrow and despair; in an instant, she felt abandoned by her own parents.
The flower-picking woman kicked the woman who was pushing her and said coldly, "My wife doesn't just take anyone. She only wants men with strong yang energy. Get out of my way. If you delay my wife's business, your whole family will lose your heads."
The daughter started wailing again. What would happen to their family if her father died?
"You useless slut, you can't even bring your father back. How are we supposed to survive without him?" Her mother was hitting her relentlessly from behind.
As punches and kicks rained down on her, she could only cower in fear, her eyes revealing despair for the future.
She is not the only one; such tragedies have occurred everywhere along the way.
“Marie, it was my fault back then, I was not human, I was not human! They are your uncle and cousin! They are your closest relatives, how could you be so heartless? Please, arrest me instead, everything back then was my own doing!” The middle-aged woman knelt at the feet of one of the flower pickers, slapping her own face desperately.
The flower-picking woman bent down and said, "Aunt, I told you before, you'd better pray that I'm dead. As long as I'm alive, I will never let your family go. I want your family to be destroyed and your husbands and sons to die one by one! Only then can I atone for my hatred from back then."
"I was wrong, I was really wrong!" Aunt shook her head: "He's your father's own brother. For his sake, please let him go! If you want to arrest someone, arrest me; if you want to kill someone, kill me!"
"Sister Mary, it seems this family isn't on the list the lady gave us," the flower picker whispered.
"Isn't it better to have more Gu beds? Maybe my wife will reward us when she sees them," Mary said with a smile that was indescribably cheerful.
"But there isn't enough room for the carriage."
"Let them squeeze in, they're not that delicate!" Mary kicked aside her aunt, who was standing next to her like a dead dog, and mounted her horse.
"Marie, you ingrate, you bitch! I should have killed you back then!" Seeing that Mary's heart was as hard as iron, her aunt cursed loudly.
The flower-picking girl next to her looked at Mary with a look of panic. This woman had managed to secure her position as the Gu Lady's confidante in just two years, and her methods and schemes were extremely deep.
Mary wasn't angry at all: "That's right, it's because I didn't die! It's too late to regret it now, Auntie. The child you used to bully has grown up!"
The flower-picking girls came and went in a hurry, and once they had gathered enough able-bodied men, they left the city.
Hearing that there was no more noise outside, the neighbors went out to check and found a woman sitting on the ground, crying bitterly.
There was no pity, only the feeling that she deserved it.
"I told her not to treat that child, Mary, like that. She's just a little girl. If we raise her, we can get a dowry when she gets married. Why did she have to be so cruel?" the aunt next to her said disdainfully.
"Can you tell us about it?"
"A ghost!" The woman's face paled.
Eight people jumped down from the rooftop in unison; they were the same eight people Cheng Jiu had been watching.
The eldest sister-in-law observed carefully and pointed at Wen Sishu: "You, you are the little immortal who stopped those two demons on the street!"
"Yes, it's me." Several months later, Wen Sishu still remembered him.
"Oh, how could I forget my benefactor! I was on the street at the time, and if it weren't for him, I might have lost my life at the hands of those two devils! I will never forget your face!" the aunt said earnestly.
"Could you tell us what happened just now?" Wen Sishu asked.
"I never expected that the little immortal lord would be interested in us common folk. No one in the whole street knows more about this than I do." The aunt had a very high opinion of Wen Sishu. "This must be the little fairy who slew the two demons later! I'm sorry, I only saw the immortal lord and overlooked you! It was my fault. Fairy, you slew the demons. Your kindness is immense, and I will remember it for life."
As the woman was about to kowtow to Cheng Jiu, Cheng Jiu immediately stopped her, saying, "This is what I should do, there's no need for that."
Cheng Jiu felt a surge of joy, the satisfaction of slaying demonic cultivators and protecting the righteous path filled her chest. She felt full of power and wished she could take on ten demonic cultivators at once.
The aunt was helped up by Cheng Jiu, and when she waved her hand, she didn't insist: "Poor thing, it was my fault, I didn't know that the fairy was actually mute."
Cheng Jiu's face turned green instantly, and her joy vanished in an instant. She looked at Nabu beside her with a deep gaze.
Don't let her know that this space was created by Nabu, and that the mute ban only applies to her and Senior Sister Yingyue.
Such double standards, looks like he deserves a beating!
Yingyue belatedly realized that the shopkeeper probably hadn't heard what she was saying at all.
Damn this world!
Seeing the two fairies' unpleasant expressions, the auntie couldn't help but pat her mouth. She always said whatever came to mind, and sure enough, she had made the fairies unhappy.
She quickly changed the subject and began to talk about Mary's past.
Mary was born into a harmonious and happy family. Her father and mother were very loving and ran a business in the city, living a wealthy and comfortable life.
The only regret is that after all these years, Mary has only been a girl, and there has never been a boy.
But the couple's loving relationship made their life quite fulfilling.
Unfortunately, fate intervened. Her father fell ill, and on his deathbed, he was most worried about his wife and daughter. He originally wanted to give all his possessions to Gu Niangzi so that she would take his daughter as her personal maid and ensure that his daughter would not be bullied by the people in the city.
But then his brother said that if his younger brother was willing to give him all his property, he would be willing to take his wife and daughter as concubines and stepdaughters.
Marie's father, considering that Marie was, after all, his own brother, and would surely treat his wife and daughter well, agreed.
When he died, Mary's mother resolutely followed in his footsteps and was buried alive with him.
In the end, Mary became her uncle's stepdaughter.
"Why didn't Mary's father leave his inheritance to his only daughter?" Cheng Jiu listened to this story, thinking that his father wasn't a bad person to his daughter.
"Because the nobles in the city say that women cannot inherit property!" The old woman's expression turned sorrowful as she spoke.
"If a male member of the family dies, his wife and daughters will become part of the property and be confiscated by the city lord's mansion. They may not even be allowed to return to their parents' home."
My poor daughter's husband was beaten to death by the young master of the Mensler family. With no male heirs in the family, the city lord's mansion confiscated their inheritance and sold them to a brothel.
"Her father and I finally saved up enough money to buy our daughter back, but then we heard that she was tortured to death by that young master of the Mensler family." She broke down in tears as she said this.
"This is outrageous! This is outrageous!" the group exclaimed angrily. This was simply an unfair contract; they could have just robbed them outright, but instead they were given a reason.
Nabu shrank back, afraid that her masters would notice her. After all, she was also one of those nobles, and if they disliked her and punished her, she would have nowhere to run.
She couldn't see herself as innocent; in fact, to some extent, she was one of the bullies, with evil blood flowing through her veins.
My pride, which I had held high because of my supposed contributions to the city, was shattered in an instant.
How did those nobles rule? Wasn't it by offering up their daughters one by one to die?
In some way, was she also an accomplice? My long-held beliefs crumbled instantly. She wasn't the savior of this city, but a sinner!
The woman had lived in this city for many years, barely surviving for so long, her spirit long since worn down. After her initial sadness, she continued talking to the others.
Mary's aunt disliked Mary very much, and compared to Mary's father, Mary's uncle was utterly useless.
So even though they were sisters-in-law, she was very jealous of Mary's mother because they were a loving couple, and Mary's father was devoted to only Mary's mother.
Although they were brothers, Mary's uncle was a gambler and womanizer, and his three sons were the same.
Now that he has inherited his younger brother's estate, and before the seventh day after his brother's death has even passed, he has already taken three concubines.
This infuriated her, making her even more jealous of Mary's mother, and she treated her daughter very badly as well.
Although it wasn't easy, Mary grew up with many stumbles and falls. She was about sixteen and old enough to get married when her eldest cousin gambled away a huge debt.
It's not that they can't get the money, but once they do, they'll go back to the way things were.
Having enjoyed the life of a wealthy wife for only a few years, her aunt had no desire to go back to the past.
Seeing that Mary was exceptionally beautiful, he hatched a wicked plan and actually sold her to a brothel.
It's important to understand that Mary already had a fiancé at the time. Mary pleaded with her aunt not to sell her, saying that she would definitely find a way to pay off her cousin's huge debt.
However, her aunt had long disliked Mary, especially since Mary looked so much like her birth mother.
When the brothel came to take her away, Mary couldn't resist and swore that as long as she lived, she would never let her uncle's family go!
At the time, her aunt didn't seem to care at all. She thought it was good enough that a little girl like her had survived in a brothel, let alone seek revenge. Nobody believed that.